Opponents of partisan gerrymandering have been fighting uphill for years to make Illinois one of the biggest blue states to take mapmaking authority away from politicians. Now the coronavirus has doomed the latest such effort.

The General Assembly has been in recess since last month because of the pandemic and now says it won't reconvene before Tuesday — two days after the deadline for completing legislation in time to permit voters to decide in November whether to create an independent redistricting commission.

This year is the last chance to reassign line-drawing power before another decade passes. That's because, after the census details come in, congressional and legislative maps for the remainder of the 2020s are supposed to be completed in time for the next election.

<p>Virginia is for now the only state with a redistricting commission proposal on the ballot. Approval, which seems likely, would mean at least some maps in 14 states are next drawn by panels where neither party has the ability to perpetuate its hold on power.</p><p>The cause of getting such a referendum on the Illinois ballot was a longshot, given resistance by the Democrats in charge in Springfield. But in light of the Covid-19 outbreak it emerged as potentially the only other possible place for a statewide vote in time. </p><p>The reason is the measure's fate was in the hands of legislators who might have been swayed at the last minute. But petition drives would need to succeed in the five other states where signatures were being gathered: Arkansas, Nebraska, Nevada, Oklahoma and Oregon. And signature gathering has been stopped cold by a pandemic that is keeping the vast majority of Americans at home.</p><p>In Illinois, good-government groups have been pushing independent commission plans throughout the decade. A proposal for a statewide vote got close in 2016 but was blocked by the state Supreme Court on the grounds the proposed language did not meet strict legal requirements.</p><p>Proponents thought their chances would improve significantly once Democrat J.B. Pritzker became governor last year, because as a candidate he expressed support for removing legislators from the mapmaking process. But he has not put his weight behind that idea since taking office, instead vowing only to veto maps drawn by the General Assembly next year if he concludes they are overly partisan. </p><p>Putting a state constitutional amendment before the voters would require his signature along with three-fifths majorities in both the state House and state Senate. And with Democratic supermajorities in both, the party had little incentive to give up its ability to draw lines that would perpetuate its power.</p><p>As evidence of how successful the party's cartographic skills last time have worked out, Democrats took about 60 percent of the statewide vote for both the General Assembly and Congress in 2018 — but their candidates won twice as many legislative races as Republicans along with 13 of the 18 House seats.</p><p>A February poll found 82 percent of Democrats and 68 percent of Republicans in the state <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/illinois-gerrymandering" target="_self">support an independent redistricting commission</a>, with more than three-quarters of voters in Chicago, its suburbs and the rest of northern Illinois backing the idea along with a somewhat less lopsided majority downstate.</p><p>Known by supporters as the Fair Maps Amendment, the current proposal would create a 17-person panel — seven Democrats, seven Republicans and three politically unaffiliated members — appointed by the state's chief justice and the most senior Supreme Court justice of the other party. Any maps would have to win support from 11 commissioners.</p><p>As an alternative, good government groups are pondering the idea of pushing legislators to pass legislation that would create a similar commission but put final approval of its work in the hands of the General Assembly.</p>

Doubek is executive director of CHANGE Illinois, which advocates for governmental and election reforms in the state. (The acronym is for the Coalition for Honest and New Government Ethics.)

One of the many things the coronavirus pandemic has underscored is that leadership truly does matter. It makes a huge difference. A life-and-death difference.

We've witnessed tremendous leadership recently from Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Mayor Lori Lightfoot of Chicago and scores of other elected officials. We ought to take a moment to express our gratitude. Their work — and the long hours and work of their staff, and of the staff of local and state employees all over Illinois — will save lives and protect millions of us.

It will give us the opportunity to live freely again, to enjoy our lakefront and partake in contact sports. And to vote.

Yes, this crisis also has underscored that voting is critically important, as is having strong choices when we vote. Choosing those who will lead and represent us is absolutely essential. We saw it after 9/11 and we see it again now.

<p>Nothing is more urgent now than getting as many of us as possible safely to the other side of this pandemic. We know this and we are grateful to our elected officials working every day to that end. And once we get there, there will be a tough cleanup for them — with budgets to repair and businesses and communities in need of shoring up.</p><p>Once all that is in hand, though, we also must commit to ensuring we can have the kind of elections we need so that we can have the best representation and leadership possible.</p><p>We need to make sure we have a full, accurate and complete census for all of Illinois. The pandemic is making that a greater challenge. That count is what will form the basis for the political mapping that happens just once a decade, creating the framework for our voting to determine who will represent us in Springfield and Washington.</p><p>We need an independent remapping process in place of the partisan <a data-linked-post="2636688309" href="https://thefulcrum.us/gerrymandering" target="_blank">gerrymandering</a> we have now, which has politicians in power drawing districts and picking their own voters.</p><p>In the middle of a pandemic, talking about gerrymandering might seem like an unneeded distraction. But fixing this problem, before the opportunity closes for as long as 10 years, would go directly toward giving us the power we're supposed to have to determine for ourselves who leads and represents us.</p><p>In Illinois, gerrymandering has taken our voices and choices away at the ballot box. In 2018, about half of the races for state House and state Senate had only one candidate. When you factor in races won by a landslide margin, nearly 80 percent of our General Assembly races were not competitive.</p><p>We need competition so that we can ensure our elected leaders are responsive and accountable to us. We need to ensure that all of our diverse communities have the chance to elect people of their choosing. </p><p>Under our state Constitution, we only have until six months before the election to settle what questions will be on our Nov. 3 ballot. That deadline is just three and a half weeks from now, on May 3.</p><p>CHANGE Illinois and a collaborative of more than 30 diverse organizations statewide have been advocating for transparent, independent redistricting embodied in the <a href="http://ilga.gov/legislation/billstatus.asp?DocNum=18&GAID=15&GA=101&DocTypeID=SJRCA&LegID=125138&SessionID=108" target="_blank">Fair</a> <a href="http://ilga.gov/legislation/billstatus.asp?DocNum=41&GAID=15&GA=101&DocTypeID=HJRCA&LegID=124992&SessionID=108" target="_blank">Maps</a> Amendment.</p><p>If supermajorities of representatives and senators do not vote by May 3 to put this language to the ballot, we're likely doomed to have another collection of rigged maps generating hundreds of foregone elections for another decade. The chances now look slim.</p><p>But even if we don't make it next month, we will not stop. We cannot. We owe it to ourselves to advocate for the equitable representation we need.</p><p>We'll continue to fight and to push for redistricting that reflects all Illinoisans, not one political party's interests or another.</p><div></div><p>The pandemic reinforces for us more than ever that fair redistricting matters. That choice matters. That leadership matters. </p>

Chaos reigned Tuesday in all three states that pressed ahead with their Democratic presidential primaries in the face of the burgeoning coronavirus pandemic.

Legions of poll workers, who are mainly older people and therefore in greatest danger of Covid-19 infection, canceled at the last minute or failed to show up at voting locations in Florida, Illinois and Arizona.

Voters were caught off guard when they found their usual polling places shuttered because of health concerns. People in the three states were told where to head instead but people in Ohio were told all voting had been canceled for the day. And plenty of Americans with compromised immune systems decided to walk away rather than risk their health at voting sites they reported were not following basic hygiene standards.

"If it were not so tragic, it would be comical," said Ami Gandhi of the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights. His organization and a collection of other voting rights groups took stock of their reports from the field at midday.

<p>The voting got started in the trio of states — with a combined 441 Democratic delegates at stake — just hours after President Trump sharply escalated efforts to contain the spread of the highly contagious and potentially deadly virus, telling Americans to stay away from groups of more than 10 people and avoid unnecessary trips away from home for the next 15 days.</p><p>Late Monday night, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio said that such a "health emergency" permitted him to order polls that were to open at 6:30 a.m. statewide to stay closed all day — even though a judge had ruled a few hours before that the election must go on. With the fate of 136 delegates at stake, and a relatively close contest in the state between former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders, the governor said he would work to get Democrats more time to vote. All this produced the greatest confusion and angst anywhere on Tuesday.</p><p>One positive was being pulled from all this catastrophe: The three states that went ahead had also allowed for periods of early voting — and each reported healthy numbers of people had already cast their ballots. </p><p>Still, there was solid evidence that turnout on the climactic day of the primaries was going to be significantly less than had been expected.</p><p>Here are more details about what has been happening Tuesday in the three states holding primaries and the one that canceled.</p><h3>Florida</h3><p>Several polling places in Palm Beach did not open at all Tuesday morning because there were no officials there to unlock the equipment.</p><p>Elizabeth McClenaghan, chairwoman of the board of the state's <a href="http://thefulcrum.us/common-cause" target="_self">Common Cause</a> chapter, said some facilities where seniors live that were supposed to be voting sites chose on their own to opt out even though they were not covered by state bans on visitations to nursing facilities. </p><p>In addition, McClenaghan said her group was receiving calls from people who were afraid to vote because their immune systems are compromised and there were reports about places without supplies of sanitizer for voters or disinfecting wipes for cleaning voting equipment between each ballot. </p><p>Nearly 4.5 million Floridians, more than one in five, are 65 or older, the highest percentage of any state in the country.</p><h3>Illinois</h3><p>Gandhi with the lawyers' committee said that for the first time on an Election Day her group was hearing more from frustrated poll workers than from voters.</p><p>She said some were substituting for poll workers who had canceled and these people were not sure where to go or what to do and could not reach local election officials. She cited one instance where 25 people had been turned away from a polling site that did not open on time. Eventually, her group was able to redirect people to another location. </p><p>A major problem, she said, was the last-minute change in voting locations that left people confused.</p><h3>Arizona</h3><p>Closed and changed voting sites were also a problem across the Grand Canyon State. In Maricopa County, where Phoenix is located, 80 voting sites were closed because of a lack of poll workers or cleaning supplies to disinfect the sites.</p><p>The remaining 151 sites were redesignated as voting centers, meaning that anyone may vote at them. But all the changes left voters confused, said Patty Ferguson-Bohnee, head of the Indian Legal Program at Arizona State University.</p><p>Ferguson-Bohnee also expressed concern that proposals to remedy the voting problems by expanding voting by mail may not work for tribal voters who often do not have access to regular mail service.</p><h3>Ohio</h3><p>The cancelation came so late that many voters were not even aware of the decision.</p><p>Kristen Clarke, president of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, used the terms "deeply disturbing," "sheer chaos" and "unlike anything we have seen before" to describe what was happening across the state.</p><p>Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton formally issued an order closing all of the state's polling places. Early Tuesday the state Supreme Court rejected an attempt to open them.</p><p>Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced Tuesday that the primary would be rescheduled for June 2 but later in the day the legislative leaders in Columbus announced that setting a new date was their prerogative. </p><p>The issue is expected to end up in the courts.</p>

Update: Republican Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio went to court Monday afternoon hoping to delay until June 2 the in-person Democratic presidential primary vote set for Tuesday, saying that proceeding would not comply with new federal coronavirus guidelines against gatherings of more than 50 people. He filed the suit because elections in the state are run by counties, so DeWine does not have the authority over polling places as he does over the restaurants, movie theaters and other places he ordered shut on Sunday. Ohio has 50 known cases of the virus as of Monday.

The four presidential primaries scheduled for Tuesday are going ahead on schedule, albeit with last-minute modifications and serious wariness about turnout in light of the intensifying national coronavirus shutdown.

Officials in Florida, Ohio, Illinois and Arizona have all said they are taking extra health precautions so voting in person remains safe. Besides, they say, so much early balloting has already happened that closing the polls on the final scheduled day of voting would severely muddy the integrity of the results.

After Tuesday, however, the national political calendar is increasingly in flux — making some voting rights advocates wary about the potential for suppression, while other arguing the Covid-19 pandemic presents a silver lining for democracy reform if it prompts more widespread adoption of voting from home and by mail.

<p>After this week, the next presidential primary was to have been Georgia's on March 24, but the state has postponed the contest until May 19, the regular primary day for congressional and state contests. Louisiana acted even more dramatically, postponing its presidential contest from April 4 until June 20 — two weeks after the last nominating contest on the schedule, potentially subjecting the state to a loss of convention delegates as punishment for skirting party rules.</p><p>Wyoming, meanwhile, has called off its April 4 in-person caucuses in favor of a totally vote-by-mail system.</p><p>New York, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and four other states also have primaries set in April. None of those plans has been altered yet, although leaders in Albany have been discussing a potential eight-week delay while the state Elections Commission in Madison was taking steps to encourage absentee voting and sending mail ballots to nursing home residents.</p><p>A broad coalition of civil rights and voting rights groups warned Monday that disrupting the primary timetable now could disenfranchise legions of voters — but that there was still sufficient time to engineer safer, more convenient options for the fall.</p><p>"Sudden changes to election times, locations, and more have been proven to create barriers to, and in some instances the denial of, citizens their right to vote," the coalition said, but "all states should have contingency plans in place for additional voting options for the general election."</p><p>What those plans should include may become clearer Tuesday. Officials in the four primary states say their worries are not so much about keeping their equipment sanitary all day and enforcing "social distancing" among voters.</p><p> Instead, they cite concerns that last-minute relocation of polling stations — mainly to get them out of assisted-living centers and nursing homes because the elderly are more vulnerable to the virus — will cause confusion. They are also worried about the potential for either plummeting same-day turnout, because of anxieties about being in public, or excessively long wait times because many of the mostly older corps of poll workers decline to show up.</p><p>In theory, the intersection of Covid-19 and democracy would be softened if the contest for the Democratic nomination ended, but there was no indication at Sunday night's debate that Sen. Bernie Sanders is contemplating bowing out now that former Vice President Joe Biden has amassed a very-difficult-to-overcome delegate lead. It's also the case that, for the rest of the spring, many of the presidential contests are on the same days as primaries for other offices.</p><p>If the pandemic threatens to persist long enough to make it dangerous to hold the general election Nov. 3, Congress has the power to postpone the election — an unprecedented step that would require an extraordinary measure of bipartisan support in order to ward-off suspicions that democracy itself was being suspended. </p><p>Several good-governance and civil rights groups have already said this extreme measure would be untenable.</p><p>Alternatively, Congress could pass legislation requiring all the states to permit no-excuse and remote absentee voting. That would be welcome news to many who advocate for making it easier and more convenient to exercise the franchise — even when long lines and cramped quarters at polling places do not reset a public health hazard.</p><p><a data-linked-post="2645461755" href="https://thefulcrum.us/voting/voting-by-mail-coronavirus" target="_blank">A version of this idea was proposed last week</a> by Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, whose bill would require mail-in or drop-off paper ballots be available nationwide if more than a quarter of the states declared a state of emergency because of coronavirus — but also provide $500 million in federal aid to carry out that mandate.</p><p>The <a data-linked-post="2640174112" href="https://thefulcrum.us/vote-at-home" target="_blank">National Vote at Home Institute</a> said it was working with legislators in Michigan, Maryland, New Jersey, Georgia, New York and Rhode Island on possible measures to expand the use of liberalized absentee mail-in voting this year.</p><p>Within days, the group said, it will unveil a "scalable strategic plan that can be adopted by election officials in every state across the country." Although no single plan will work in every state, the group said, "we are confident that we can deliver an actionable way to preserve the integrity of elections through November and beyond."</p><p>"It is imperative for state election officials to address voters' and poll workers' fears by limiting the need to cast an in-person ballot," the League of Women Voters said Monday in urging all the states and both parties to permit or expand mail-in voting during both the primaries and in November. "Our top priority must be the health and safety of the American people while simultaneously upholding the rights of all voters."</p>